PalCinema Review: Rounding
February 14, 2025
FILM: ROUNDING
DIRECTED BY: ALEX THOMPSON
STARRING: NAMIR SMALLWOOD, SIDNEY FLANIGAN, MICHAEL POTTS
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Note: This review first ran after Rounding’s screening at the Tribeca Film Festival in June of 2022. The film is now receiving a theatrical release.
One can look at a film like Rounding and just experience the surface of its narrative: A young medical resident is struggling with his own ability to care in a traditional way for his patients. However, what emerges from Chicago writer/director Alex Thompson’s work is one of deep seated trauma and emotional frailty that on the one hand helps the main character’s empathic journey with patients while also potentially unnerving the goals of the medical profession to which he is part.
When the film begins, the resident, James, is seen by the bedside of an older woman in her final stages of life. As the end nears, James has a breakdown and faints in the hospital corridor. What follows are his attempts to reclaim himself and his passion by becoming a resident at a rural hospital in a small town called Greenville. James continues to struggle with some of the most intense moments and is seen vomiting and hiding in rooms to keep his anxious reactions from the view of others, in particular the leading hospital medical professional, Dr. Harrison.
James is a very complex character whose inner demons are revealed, in part, through the nervous energy of his shaking feet and gradually horrifying skin condition. On the surface, he is tentative, quiet, and a bit reserved as he mumbles his way through patient hospital rooms. He’s not a character though that we’d say should not be part of the medical profession. James bucks the system as he views patients from a perspective that doesn’t conform to the usual methods of diagnosis and treatment. With a severely asthmatic patient, played by Sidney Flanigan best known for her unnerving performance in Never Rarely Sometimes Always, he begins seeing something more than Harrison and the other residents who are working on her case see.
James thinks outside of the box with his own perhaps disturbing mental point of view, which features demonic visions and dragon-like creatures. The film suggests that in order to see patients from new perspectives one might have to really be twisted inside so as not to be bound by the rules of contemporary medicine and its standardized methods of treatment.
If those last few sentences throw you for a loop than you’d have a pretty good sense as to what Thompson is trying to achieve here. This is not a traditional medical drama in the vein of ER or Grey’s Anatomy. Rather Thompson fuses together elements we might associate with such medical dramas with thrills and personal horror while still possessing a grasp on the realities and pressures of a young doctor’s career.
Most of this would be difficult to discern if not for the mood and tone Thompson establishes throughout the film. It is winter and thus darker and colder both in and outside these hospital settings. This is an atmosphere where a traditional sunny disposition would throw off the darkness of the narrative and James’s inner world.
The performances also add to the mystery and suspense building throughout the film. Namir Smallwood is appropriately aloof and intense as his character manufactures his own unique ideologies and visions. The excellent Michael Potts is subtle yet no less fierce as Dr. Harrison. Sidney Flanigan shows more of what she can do with a broader performance than we saw in her much-lauded role in the aforementioned Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
Generally, the pacing of the film is fast with many ellipses which at times might leave audiences wondering about the time and space between scenes. The film does lose some steam for a bit when James drives around Greenville in search of answers. However, these choices don’t unhinge the film and its ability to intrigue and perplex viewers. This latter feeling might be still felt by the end but Thompson does provide a dialogue between James and Harrison which pretty much ties up many loose ends the narrative might have.
Rounding is a film for those who want to experience a different kind of medical story which isn’t overly horrific yet horrific enough to leave viewers unnerved and sympathetic to the struggles many young doctors experience as they work their way up the hospital ladder.
Rounding opens theatrically this week including a run at the Music Box Theater in Chicago.
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Interest piqued. Also I miss the Music Box. Thanks
Excellent write up, I had not heard of this one but it sounds like an interesting movie based on the plot you describe and the mix of drama with some horror elements. I am going to have to add it to my watchlist.